astronomy

Irving Gilman Davis

Irving Gilman Davis is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Irving Gilman Davis rather than just read about it. In short: Irving Gilman Davis (1885–1939) was an American educator and agricultural economist who taught at the University of Connecticut (UConn; then Connecticut Agricultural College) from 1915 to 1939. He served as Professor of Economics and department chair starting in 1919.

Key takeaways

Irving Gilman Davis belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Irving Gilman Davis to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Irving Gilman Davis from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Irving Gilman Davis (1885–1939) was an American educator and agricultural economist who taught at the University of Connecticut (UConn; then Connecticut Agricultural College) from 1915 to 1939. He served as Professor of Economics and department chair starting in 1919.

Early life and career Davis was born on April 25, 1885, in Poland, Maine, to John Gilman and Juniata (Dunn) Davis. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Bates College in 1906. He served as high school principal in Cotuit (1906–07) and Shrewsbury (1907–09) in Massachusetts. Davis resigned to study agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, completing his studies but suffering health problems that necessitated a lengthy recuperation at the family home in Maine. Resuming teaching in 1912, he taught at the Brimfield Vocational Agricultural School (1913–15). In 1915, Davis joined the Connecticut Agricultural College's extension service. He worked as assistant county agent leader and received a promotion to county agent leader in 1917. He partnered with farmers across Tolland County to improve farm management practices and awareness of market conditions. In 1917, he launched an economic bulletin that proved so useful to farmers that it was taken up by the state and published for decades. He led publicity for the food committee of the wartime state defense council (1917–18) and served as acting director of the extension service in 1919.

Academic career In 1919, President Charles L. Beach appointed Davis Professor of Economics and then made him department chair in 1920, following the unplanned departure of both of the full-time economics faculty members. Despite facing skepticism because of his lack of a graduate degree, Davis proved a successful chair and instructor of home economics and agricultural economics. Between 1933 and 1940, the economics department was sixth in the country in the number of its graduates who found positions in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and the US Department of Agriculture. During his academic career, Davis continued his work with the college's extension service, doing outreach to farmers, among whom he was widely respected. He was frequently invited to consult with the Connecticut General Assembly about agricultural bills. In 1924 he received a joint appointment as agricultural economist with the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. Davis authored or coauthored eight research bulletins for the station over the next fifteen years. He also published numerous articles and book reviews in the Journal of the American Statistical Association and Journal of Farm Economics. As a researcher, Davis specialized in land utilization and the development of cooperatives. Davis took time throughout his academic career to pursue graduate education. He spent the summers of 1924 and 1925 taking graduate coursework in economics at the University of Wisconsin. He went on sabbatical in 1929–30 to pursue studies at Harvard University and finally earned his PhD in economics from Harvard in 1937 at the age of 51. Davis was one of the leaders in organizing the New England Research Council on Marketing and Food Supply and the New England Institute of Cooperation. In the 1930s, Davis chaired the agriculture advisory committee of the Social Science Research Council. In December 1938, Davis was elected president of the American Farm Economic Association.

Personal life Davis generally went by his initials, I. G. He married Alice Sawin in Brimfield, Massachusetts, in 1914, shortly before moving to Connecticut. The couple had three children. Davis suffered from hypertension and other heart problems for most of his life. He died of a heart attack at his Storrs home on March 15, 1939. He was interred at Storrs Cemetery following a funeral attended by over three hundred mourners. Classes were suspended so that students could attend. The state assembly adjourned for a day to commemorate Davis's death.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Irving Gilman Davis

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Irving Gilman Davis claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Irving Gilman Davis before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Irving Gilman Davis ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Irving Gilman Davis

In research: Irving Gilman Davis appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Irving Gilman Davis in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Irving Gilman Davis is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1885 births, 1939 deaths, 20th-century American economists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Irving Gilman Davis outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Irving Gilman Davis in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Irving Gilman Davis means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Irving Gilman Davis out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Irving Gilman Davis in simple terms?

Why does Irving Gilman Davis matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Irving Gilman Davis?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Irving Gilman Davis.